The port of Jaffa is a very ancient place, and though it looks somewhat sleepy today, it was a bustling, working harbor for many centuries before the Egyptian Pharaohs took note. Located on a high tel on the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean, Jaffa’s strategic position (evident in maps both old and new) guaranteed its geo-political-economic […]
After a gap of many years I recently returned to teaching the origins of architecture in an undergraduate history survey. I still call this course “caves to cathedral,” but I don’t actually begin with caves. In fact, my first lecture starts with the Seagram Building, but I’m still considering a new nickname: “hut to Bauhütte.” […]
The other day, early in the new year, I walked to the sea. Though Irving Berlin was playing in my head–“I joined the Navy to see the world, but what did I see, I saw the sea”–I was far removed from Tin Pan Alley and this was no regular jaunt to the water. Instead of […]